Aldi plans 300 mn stg UK store refresh as 2015 profit falls

The British arm of German discount supermarket Aldi said on Monday it would spend 300 million pounds ($389 million) sprucing up its stores over the next three years as it reported a 1.8 percent fall in 2015 profit due to price cuts.

The British arm of German discount supermarket Aldi said on Monday it would spend 300 million pounds ($389 million) sprucing up its stores over the next three years as it reported a 1.8 percent fall in 2015 profit due to price cuts.

The firm said a plan to have 1,000 UK stores by 2022 was on track and said future capital expenditure plans were unaffected by Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.

Aldi said it has cut prices by 30 percent of its products so far in 2016, with that investment made possible by the strength of its balance sheet, which had net assets of 2.1 billion pounds ($2.7 billion) at the end of 2015.

Aldi and its German discount rival Lidl have transformed the competitive landscape in UK food retailing over the last five years and remain Britain’s fastest growing supermarkets with a combined market share of 10.8 percent, according to the latest industry data.